Four men convicted in Telford sex abuse trial

Four men from Telford who abused a vulnerable young girl after she was "passed around like a piece of meat" have been convicted.

The victim told the court how she was forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, raped above a shop on a filthy mattress and violently abused when she tried to refuse their advances.

Five men went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

The offences are said to have happened in Telford in the West Midlands between 2000 and 2003, and started when the girl was just 12-years-old.

The jury heard how the abuse continued until the victim was in her mid teens.

The young woman also told the jury how she was assaulted by other adult males who are yet to be identified.

Michelle Heeley QC said: "This case involves the sexual exploitation of a young girl, a girl passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several young men, some of whom are in the dock."

"Each of these defendants deny that they in any way abused anyone."

"The prosecution say, having heard the evidence, you can be sure they did."

The jury heard how the victim was sold for sex, first by Tanveer Ahmed, then 40, who "befriended her" during a low point in her life.

Ahmed was a take away delivery man for Perfect Pizza in the town. He was not on trial alongside the other defendants after he was deported to Pakistan for "unrelated offences", the court heard.

The jury did not hear how Ahmed was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting a charge of controlling a child prostitute as part of a series of court cases that ended in 2013.

He was one of seven men jailed after an investigation into a child prostitution ring in Telford, as part of West Mercia Police's Operation Chalice inquiry.

The victim then came into contact with the first defendant, Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, whom she said also sold her for sex, raped and abused her.

The jury was told that he already had convictions in both 2012 and 2015 for "similar offences against young girls".

Ali Sultan was also among the seven men originally convicted following the Chalice investigation into the abuse and prostitution of children in Telford.

Video recorded interviews with the victim were watched by the jury during the trial. In the interviews she told detectives how she "endured two years of hell" as she was passed between different men, and how she repeatedly contemplated taking her own life.

She claimed she was taken to a flat above the Perfect Pizza shop "to have sex with Asians", and "lost count" of the number of men who abused her.

The woman said her family knew nothing at the time but "people at school" somehow found out, through rumour.

"I used to get called Paki-shagger," she said. "There used to be like actions, with their hand, hand by their mouth, suggesting blowjobs."

She added: "Even the teachers heard people saying these things and not one teacher pulled me to the side and asked me if things were all right."

"I was too scared to go and ask for help. But nobody said a word."

She told the police that years after her abuse ended she recognised photos of Ali Sultan and Ahmed from press reports on the Telford sex ring.

Asked why she did not tell anyone about exactly what happened until years later, she replied: "I think I had just had enough, I kept it to myself for all these years."

"Why should somebody be able to do those things and get away with it?

"Still to this day it goes through my head, all the time."

As an adult, she later picked out each of the five men at police identification parades.

On Tuesday (December 17), Ali Sultan was unanimously convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

During the trial, the jury were directed to find him not guilty of another rape charge after the defence presented evidence he was in Pakistan at the time the alleged offence took place.

Co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was also convicted of two counts of indecent assault.

The court heard how Rizwan, who alleged he had a consensual sexual relationship with the victim when she was 17, saved her phone number as "blowjob2".

On Wednesday (December 18), the jury also found co-accused Shafiq Younas, 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, near Telford, guilty of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard.

Amjad Hussain, 38, of Acacia Drive, Leegomery, Telford - unanimously convicted of a single count of indecent assault on Tuesday (December 17) - was cleared by jurors, on Wednesday (December 18), of another similar offence.

The jury also cleared Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, of raping the girl in the back of a car.

The four men are due to be sentenced tomorrow (December 19).